Activist to launch new anti-bullying plans

By DIANA MEHTA The Canadian PressPublished December 27, 2012 - 9:53pm

FILE - In this June 28, 2012 file photo,
Bus monitor Karen Klein, of Greece, N.Y., is surrounded by school children while riding a tourist duck boat, an amphibious vehicle, in Boston. You could call it a case of empathy gone viral. When a Toronto man stumbled upon a YouTube video of a 68-year-old bus monitor in New York State being bullied to tears by a group of middle schoolers, he felt compelled to act, triggering an online fundraising campaign which surpassed his expectations and raised thousands. THE CANADIAN PRESS/AP,Steven Senne

TORONTO — You could call it a case of empathy gone viral.

When a Toronto man stumbled upon a YouTube video of a 68-year-old bus monitor in New York State being bullied to tears by a group of middle schoolers, he felt compelled to act, triggering an online fundraising campaign which surpassed his expectations and raised thousands.

Now, all Max Sidorov wants is for the outpouring of goodwill to continue in some way.

“When it happened, I was just like, how can I make something even bigger come about, something even more positive,” he says.

In September, the 26-year-old was able to present a cheque for just over $700,000 to Karen Klein, after donations flooded in from around the world to send the grandmother of eight on a vacation.

The tremendous response to what was his first fundraising effort has prompted Sidorov to kickstart two new campaigns which he hopes will see similar levels of success.

In March, he hopes to accompany Quinton Aaron — who starred as a football player in the 2009 film, The Blind Side — on an international anti-bullying tour connected with the actor’s foundation. The campaign hopes to interact with victims and their bullies in an effort to promote acts of kindness and pinpoint the issues that trigger the bullying.

Closer to home, Sidorov is also launching his own website — lovedeeder.com — which he hopes will be a social media platform to help people participate in or start up fundraising and charitable efforts.

“People can post comments, get points. It’s going to be like competitive do-gooding,” says Sidorov, who has poured his own savings into the project.

The website is partly a product of the intense feedback he received in the aftermath of his fundraising campaign for Klein.